Is doping at work and in class OK?

By Bryan Moore, Special to CNN

Updated 1:42 PM ET, Mon August 12, 2013

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Drug scandals in sports – New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended in August 2013 after he was accused of having ties to Biogenesis, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic, and taking performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension covers 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season. Rodriguez denied the accusations and said he intends to appeal. Twelve other Major League Baseball players received 50-game suspensions without pay in the Biogenesis probe, and In July, Milwaukee Brewers star outfielder Ryan Braun was suspended for the rest of the season for violating the league's drug policy.

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Drug scandals in sports – Lance Armstong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from professional cycling in October 2012 after being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong confessed in January 2013 to doping during his cycling career.

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Drug scandals in sports – Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time home run leader, but some commentators say there should be an asterisk by his record. Though he's said he never knowingly used steroids, two San Francisco reporters wrote a book alleging he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating steroids, and convicted of obstruction of justice.

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Drug scandals in sports – Lyle Alzado was known as one of the most vicious lineman to ever play the game, and he chalked up more than 100 sacks and almost 1,000 tackles. Before his death from brain cancer at age 43, he told Sports Illustrated he began using steroids in 1969 and that, "On some teams between 75 and 90% of all athletes use steroids."

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Rocket" for his aggressive pitching style, Roger Clemens played pro ball for more than two decades, racking up seven Cy Youngs. He left Major League Baseball under a cloud of steroid allegations, despite a court finding him not guilty of perjury when he told Congress he never used the drugs.

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Drug scandals in sports – At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Alistair Overeem is known for putting mixed martial arts star Brock Lesnar into early retirement. Ahead of a heavyweight title match against UFC champion Junior dos Santos in May, Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was yanked from the card.

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Drug scandals in sports – An early and chief accuser of Armstrong, Floyd Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted doping in 2010, the same year he accused many other riders of doping as well.

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Drug scandals in sports – As the most decorated Olympian ever, with 22 medals, Michael Phelps is known as a fish in human's clothing, but for a brief period in 2009, after a photo of him smoking a bong was made public, he also was known as a pothead. Despite losing sponsors, he quickly became known for swimming again, securing six medals in the 2012 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Marion Jones was a world champion track and field athlete who won several titles in the 1990s and five medals during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. After admitting in 2007 that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, she was stripped of the gold medals and other honors won after the 2000 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Lights Out" after knocking out four players in a high school game, Shawne Merriman entered the NFL with fanfare, earning 2005 Rookie of the Year honors. His 2006 suspension for steroid use prompted the "Merriman Rule," prohibiting any player who tests positive for steroids from going to the Pro Bowl that year.

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Drug scandals in sports – After his former Texas Rangers teammate Jose Canseco accused him of using steroids, Rafael Palmeiro appeared before Congress to deny the allegations. Later that year, he was suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids. He maintains to this day he has never knowingly taken performance enhancers.

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Drug scandals in sports – Few NBA players have tested positive for steroids, not only because the sport relies less on raw strength and speed than other sports but also because the league didn't begin testing until 1999. Miami Heat forward Don MacLean became the first to fail a test in 2000, and he was suspended for five games.

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Drug scandals in sports – After racking up awards in college football, Ricky Williams was picked in the first round of the pro football draft in 1999. After testing positive for marijuana in 2004 as a Miami Dolphin, Williams retired and studied holistic medicine in California. He returned to the Dolphins the following year, only to have more run-ins with the NFL drug policy. He retired again in 2011.

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Drug scandals in sports – Bill Romanowski was known for hard hits on the gridiron, but he also violently attacked teammate Marcus Williams during a scrimmage while playing for the Oakland Raiders. In a lawsuit, Williams blamed the attack on Romanowski's "roid rage." Romanowski settled the suit and in 2005 admitted to "60 Minutes" that he used steroids.

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Drug scandals in sports – Sprinter Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100-meter dash in 2002, but the time was scratched after he was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Since his retirement, he has had other legal troubles including arrests for money laundering and heroin offenses. He was sentenced to jail time for both.

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Drug scandals in sports – An Olympian and renowned longball hitter, Mark McGwire spent his entire career with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, breaking the single-season home run record in 1998. In 2010, he admitted using steroids over the course of a decade but told Bob Costas in an interview he took them only for health reasons.

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Drug scandals in sports – Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal during the first year of snowboarding at the 1988 Olympics. He was stripped of the medal after testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. It became fodder for late-night talk show jokes, but Rebagliati eventually got his medal back after it was determined marijuana was not a banned substance.

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Drug scandals in sports – A winner of eight Grand Slam events, Andre Agassi was considered one of the most dominant tennis players of the 1990s. In 2009, the tennis pro acknowledged in his autobiography that he had failed a drug test for methamphetamine in 1997 but skirted punishment by blaming an assistant.

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Drug scandals in sports – Regarded as the best soccer player after Pele, Diego Maradona was known for his deft footwork and knack for finding the net. In 1991, he was suspended for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine. He would later admit he was addicted to the drug for about 20 years and began using when he was playing for Barcelona in the 1980s.

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Drug scandals in sports – A prolific sprinter in the 1980s, Canadian Ben Johnson routinely bested American Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. After winning the gold at Seoul in 1988, Johnson tested positive for a steroid. His coach said Johnson took the drugs to keep up with other athletes and later wrote a book saying all top athletes were using in those days.

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Story highlights

Bryan Moore: People who take neuroenhancement drugs to be sharper similar to A-Rod case

Moore says some may take mixed amphetamine salts, used to treat ADHD, to gain advantage

He says these medications may carry health risks but won't get high achievers fired at work

Moore: Perhaps professionals should face same scrutiny as athletes such as A-Rod

Join me in a thought experiment. Take two individuals, A and B. A is a naturally gifted professional immersed in a hyper-competitive field where performance is publicly scrutinized and frequently re-evaluated. Continuous pressure makes A seek any advantage to excel. He takes medications to gain a physical advantage over competitors while risking chronic health problems.

B is a talented and motivated employee who has made innumerable sacrifices to get ahead at work. She is stressed by the knowledge that her productivity is always being analyzed and feels pressured to use any possible advantage to be the best. She takes a medication that makes her mentally sharper but could endanger her health.

A is maligned baseball star Alex Rodriguez. B is your co-worker with the newly acquired job title who seems to work 90 hours per week, escaping fatigue by inexplicable means.

Is there really a significant difference between A and B, other than how much A has been publicly criticized? Not really. Their actions stem from the same premise: In competitive professional environments, winners do whatever is necessary to triumph.

Bryan Moore

Your new VP may lack A-Rod's bulk and salary, but they share a common style.

Rodriguez was recently suspended for 211 games for an alleged connection to a Florida clinic that has been accused of supplying professional athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. Even casual fans realize this action is the equivalent of a guilty verdict for doping.

Your enthusiastically efficient, work-obsessed colleague with the new job title and beautifully renovated office down the hall shares a similar philosophy as athletes accused of doping: Take advantage of any available mechanism to succeed. Consequently, Person B pursues the controversial advantage conferred by "neuroenhancement" medications.

In theory, these act as steroids for the mind. They include mixed amphetamine salts and other medications approved to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Whether or not the medications objectively enhance cognitive performance is still under investigation. There are theorized risks of increased rates of hypertension, heart failure and psychosis with their use, but there is no definitive evidence that the use of neuroenhancement medications imposes these risks.

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As contentious as the research on neuroenhancement may be, there is even less controlled research looking at the objective results and adverse effects of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics.

Regardless of the outcomes that these medications achieve, the motivations of their consumers are the same. Whether doping for physical or cognitive enhancement, both parties are using medications with indeterminate efficacy and risk to obtain an advantage. The only difference is the level of regulation and scrutiny of the abusers and who is more likely to be punished for the abuse.

Fear of public shaming and prosecution should not drive decision-making when it comes to the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. A-Rod has a large number of critics; at least one of them must have tried neuroenhancement to dominate in the office. This person may label A-Rod as a "doper" and question the validity of his achievements without acknowledging that his or her motivations may stem from similar desires.

Fans who are critical of athletes need to apply the same standards to themselves and to the people in their lives. A pharmacologically derived professional advantage in the office should not be seen as more appropriate than a similar advantage gained in a stadium.

A-Rod could potentially sit for hundreds of games as a consequence of the accusations against him. Maybe your new VP should forfeit that fancy new office for 211 days to maintain a moral norm.